M

Member

Speaking in the House of Lords on 30 October 2025

Debate

Heather and Grass etc. Burning (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2025

Contribution

Unlike controlled burning, wildfires are essentially unplanned, unannounced and unconsented. They are most likely to occur outside the consented burning period, when things are at their driest. The resultant fire may, of course, burn quickly and cleanly through the vegetation, or it may linger in tussocks. This is where the risk of setting the peat alight comes about. Causes of such wildfires are many and various—maybe a discarded glass item, but I suspect more often a discarded cigarette or a carelessly used disposable barbecue. Where I grew up, we did not have much deeper peat. I am not sure how much peat of a depth of 30 centimetres or more there is on Exmoor, and I am fairly sure that there is not much evidence one way or the other about the distribution. It is likely to be distributed in what the noble Earl referred to as a mosaic—in other words, dotted around all over the place. If you start burning one area, how are you going to avoid these areas of deeper peat? I do not know how that works.

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